My very first recognizable symptom that something was going on was the burning face. It was also my first experience with people brushing off my symptoms. (Well...no, not really, but that other happened when I was 6 or 7 and was most likely misinterpreted as childhood imagination.)
The first time my face heated up and turned red was after a high school football game. It was an away game and it started just as we were loading the buses for home. I reported it to one of the parents, who felt my forehead and decided I was not running a fever.
The ride home was so uncomfortable. It must have been near the end of the season. I face was burning up and I wasn't generating any sweat to cool off. Finally, my friend suggested I open a window just a crack and let the wind help out. That lasted about a minute, until the others started complaining about the cold.
Thankfully, our bus trips were usually an hour or less, but the trip seemed interminable. It had subsided by the time I walked into my house, so my mom didn't get how bad it had been. Besides, it was over, so no biggie, right?
Except that it happened again and again over a span of 20 years. My own Rheumatologist doesn't even think it's a symptom, but it's a symptom of SOMETHING! It mostly stopped when I began taking Plaquinil. It still happens occasionally, but it's now limited to one side of my face.
The clear trigger? Excess fatigue.
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